Shorten Announces ALP Shadow Ministry Portfolio Allocations

The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, has announced his allocation of portfolios for the ALP’s Shadow Ministry.

The 48-member executive includes 22 members in the Shadow Cabinet, 10 in the Shadow Outer Ministry and 16 Shadow Assistant Ministers (Parliamentary Secretaries). The total Caucus numbers are not yet final but are likely to be around 95 members. About half of the Caucus will be members of the shadow executive.

A number of positions in the Shadow Cabinet have changed hands, although Chris Bowen remains Shadow Treasurer. The biggest winner of the reshuffle is the second-term MP Jim Chalmers, who has been made Shadow Minister for Finance and moves into the Shadow Cabinet.

In other changes, deputy leader Tanya Plibersek has been moved into the high-profile domestic portfolio of Education. The party’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, takes Foreign Affairs.

Senator Kim Carr, for whom the shadow ministry has been expanded from 30 to 32, retains the portfolio of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

Another significant change sees Michelle Rowland take over Communications, whilst Defence goes to Richard Marles and Senator Stephen Conroy takes on Special Minister of State and Sport. The relatively unknown Queenslander, Shayne Neumann, becomes Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

Shorten has appointed 16 parliamentary secretaries. Michael Danby and Graham Perrett have been dropped. The former and now re-elected Senator Louise Pratt becomes Shadow Assistant Minister for Families and Communities. Mike Kelly, re-elected to Eden-Monaro, takes on Defence Industry and Support, whilst Senator Pat Dodson will assist Shorten in Indigenous Affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The other newly-appointed shadow assistant ministers are Pat Conroy, Terri Butler, Lisa Chesters and Andrew Giles.

The new member for Perth, Tim Hammond, a national senior vice-president of the ALP, has been moved straight into the shadow executive with 3 shadow assistant portfolios.

Because of the factional considerations that led to the increased size of the Shadow Cabinet, Andrew Leigh and Senator Sam Dastyari will not receive extra pay for their positions. For Leigh, this represents a cut of around $40,000.